Wizard and the Princess_ The
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Undefined
_________________________

King George's daughter Priscilla has been kidnapped by an evil wizard named Harlin, who holds here in his castle. The King offers half of his kingdom to anyone who would venture into the faraway mountain land, enter the castle, defeat Harlin, and bring back the princess. Only one adventurer is brave enough to accept this challenge.

The Wizard and the Princess is a text adventure with graphics. The game's environments are composed of still shots viewed from first-person perspective. The player types combinations of verbs and objects to interact with the game world, move between locations, solve puzzles, and advance the story.

The IBM PC version, entitled Adventure in Serenia, is the exact same game, with the exception of the plot introduction, which is described as a sequel to The Wizard and the Princess: Harlin uses the sands of time to undo his demise by the brave wanderer, and the player has to defeat him once again.

Alternate Titles
"The Wizard and the Princess" -- 8-bit Title
"Hi-Res Adventure #2: Wizard and the Princess" -- Apple II/Atari 8-bit title
"Adventure in Serenia" -- PC Title

Trivia

The game sold over 60,000 copies.

The game's title in the box is just "Wizard and the Princess". But in the instruction manual and the disk itself one can read the title as "The Wizard and the Princess".

In the game King's Questions (a trivia game played in the world of Daventry, from King's Quest), one of the questions asked is about The Wizard and the Princess (alternate title for Adventure in Serenia):

"The Wizard and the Princess" was made for the Apple computer. What was it called when released for the IBM PC?

a. Hello, Daventry!

b. Adventure in Serenia

c. Hi-Res Adventure #2

d. The Princess and the Wizard 

A lot of adventure game lists incorrectly identify this as Adventures in Serenia (plural). Adventure, singular, is the correct title.

This is the same game as Sierra's "Wizard and the Princess", just a different title. Adventure in Serenia was actually written in 1980 but was not published by IBM until 1982. (There are two copyright dates on the disk label.) It is generally regarded as the first commercial interactive fiction game to incorporate color graphics.

The game also exists for IBM under the "Wizard and the Princess" title, published by Sierra (who were known as On-Line Systems at the time). 

The infamous sierra name of "Avis Durgan" appears in the code for this game as well.


http://www.mobygames.com/game/hi-res-adventure-2-the-wizard-and-the-princess
